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Sunday, July 9, 2017

'Admiral' Zahid wants to torpedo PKR in Gombak

Selangor Menteri Besar Mohamed Azmin Ali may be in for a tough fight if he decided to defend his Gombak parliamentary seat, as Umno de facto deputy president Ahmad Zahid Hamidi has taken a personal interest in ensuring a BN victory.

Zahid has ordered the Gombak Umno division leadership to meet him in two weeks time to discuss their election plans.

"We will plan our strategy, let big brother (me) sit in as the nahkoda (admiral)," Zahid said at the launch of the Gombak Umno annual meeting in Kuala Lumpur today.

He threatened to fire the Gombak Umno division chief and his deputy if the could not recapture the constituencies under their watch due to infighting.

He also joked that no expenses would be spared in their efforts to recapture Gombak.

"I'm only joking about the money," he added quickly.

Azmin has held the Gombak seat for two terms since 2008.

Similarly the three state seats under Gombak - Batu Caves, Gombak Setia, and Ulu Klang - have also been held by PKR and PAS since 2008.

However, all four seats saw their majority shrink in 2013 with Azmin's lead in Gombak sliding from 6,867 in 2008, to 4,734 in 2013.

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Zahid said Gombak and its three state seats were ripe for the taking but stressed that BN must set aside internal disputes and start acting like opposition members in Selangor instead of taking things easy just because BN is in charge at the federal level.

BN, he said, must capitalise on the disarray among the opposition to win back Selangor.

In his speech Zahid also poked fun at the Selangor government's "peduli rakyat" (caring for the people) motto, saying the people were instead being bullied.

In an earlier speech, Selangor BN chief Noh Omar said the state government was clearly neglecting the public as his walkabouts in Gombak found many residential areas to be in deplorable conditions.

"Azmin says Selangor has billions in reserves. If you have billions why aren't you taking care of Gombak?" he asked.

He suggested that perhaps Azmin was not interested in Gombak because he already has sights on Pekan - the parliamentary seat held by Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak.